Is there anyone here who is an automotive enthusiast? I’ve had a love (obsession, actually) for cars ever since my grandmother gave me a model set of two Chevrolet cars. One from the 1910s and another from the 1930s!

This thread is to discuss all things cars/trucks/vehicles of all sort!

for me, I’ve always liked GM products, I am biased because I have a 1999 Olds Alero… my favorite brand would be Chevrolet, just because it has the widest range of cars I like. I really love how much Chrysler has changed thanks to Fiat, too.

my favorite car is a random one, a Chevy Tahoe specifically the 2000-2006 model years. Hehe

I may be living my Father’s preference here but the old American land yacht in Wagon form really is a cozy car to ride around in. I rode in a 1980s Caprice Estate as a kid and when I first drove a 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis back home I was used to driving a 2000 Dodge Caravan with the tires at 40-44 PSI; I was used to feeling road bumps and the pavement yet I couldn’t feel the road through the tires in this Mercury! This preference is partially due to me saying to my Dad I’d buy him a Wagon. He doesn’t drive it at all though unless I ask him to.

I had given thought to a 1971-1976 Pontiac Grand Safari, you know the type with the tailgate that drops into the floor and the glass into the roof? Still, I feel as if this is overdoing it at the moment.

@BarryFromMars
I love those old station wagons. I just saw a Caprice Estate on an auction on TV. I’d love to have one. I grew up with a minivan so I didn’t have the chance to experience station wagon life

Minivans have their place but in my experience they’re not as comfortable to drive in (more road feel) but at least they were cheap to find and get parts for once on the used market for over 10 years. Maybe the shocks/struts in the ones I drove were worn but the front wheels are much closer to the passenger compartment than in a land yacht wagon.

What year was the Caprice Estate you saw? 1960s, I suppose?

If you look into a third generation G.M. model (1977-1990 excl. Pontiac which ran from 1977-1981 and 1983-1989) the last year models have seat belts mounted on the doors. A Police Department that used Caprice sedans thought that was unsafe. The Wagons had carburetors every year but Ford and Mercury had Throttle Body Injection from 1983-1985 and Multi-Port Fuel Injection from 1986-1991. The Ford and Mercury cars are slightly better for safety from 1990-1991; no door-mounted seat belts, three-point seat belts in the middle and an air bag for the driver. The rear seats in my 1990 Mercury* still had lap belts though.

*Edit, 20 September 2017: How I missed this who will know but I meant 1984 Chevrolet Caprice Sedan at the asterisk.

hm I’d say it was a 1968 Caprice Estate, surely a beautiful land yacht indeed. The closest I’ve come to a land yacht is a 2001 Chrysler Concorde… truly smooth and luxurious ride! I’ll surely miss the era of huge cars

@RainbowDash69
On the plus side, Chrysler’s LX-platform cars are supposed to stay in production until 2020 (I think), so there are going to be a good number of near- land yachts on the roads for a while yet.

@RainbowDash69
A bigger engine in the CTS Wagon? I take it you’ve never heard of this:
The CTS-V wagon: RWD, with a 6.2 liter supercharged V-8 producing 556 horsepower and 551 foot-pounds of torque, giving it a 4.6 second 0-60 and a top speed of 163 miles an hour.
And it has a 6-speed manual.

Land Yacht Wagons really are America’s definitive family do-it-all car. No Minivans were around though SUVs were, they weren’t common as they are now though. SUVs and Minivans took the place Wagons used to have.

Well, for some cars 100% original is a little ridiculous if you’re driving it frequently considering cars that are old enough had single master cylinder brakes and no engine coolant reservoir. If you’d get just one pinhole on one brake line you’d lose ALL braking power soon enough and that’s what you don’t need when going down a mountain, hope you got low gearing to slow down with and lots of swerving space! As for "No engine coolant reservoir" have you ever seen RCR’s review of a stock 1960 Falcon? Not kidding. They really are like this; the coolant drips out a tube when the engine gets hot.

https://youtu.be/3HNYtMTCxFI?t=405 (quote’s at 7:45 but I put it to 6:45 for context about that particular engine.)

You guys ever heard of the Fiat Uno?
It’s a commonplace car here in Brazil. It looks kind of ugly and square, yet reliable as a first car.
There’s even a joke in which an Uno gets faster if you put a folded ladder on top, and even faster if you put a company sticker on the side door.
How good does it look?

@BadgingBadger
Never heard of it before, but I kind of like the look of it; a clean, simple hatchback with enough factory ground clearance that it won’t drag it’s bumper on every parking entry and driveway, like the VW golf used to be.

@RainbowDash69
We have many of those "squarey-cheap" cars here. I, for example, like Volkswagen’s Kombis and Beetles.
They’re funny-looking, and maybe that’s what makes them so known and respected. Maybe also because i can’t remember very specific types of cars — i don’t know what a "chrysler 300" or a "corolla" looks like. I only know the more famous ones like the Beetle, the Kombi, the DeLorean, the Ferraris, the Mini Cooper, and some others, like the Honda Fit my mother used to own and the Civic she uses now.

One cool thing i just remembered: my (deceased) father was a huge fan of jeep and off-road, and some of his (now my) friends like it too. He was part of an off-road club, while he was also a helicopter pilot. We still got his jeep truck, but it’s stored in one of his old friend’s house.
Does anyone else here like off-road?

Like a tiny 1980s Toyota. Not bad but certainly not something I’d personally pine for, then again I just prefer what’s more local to me. I am however (speaking of smaller cars) interested in a 2000 Honda Insight:

The appeal is its fuel efficiency. Small engine, manual transmission and hypermilers love it and some even put a boat-tail modification on it for higher efficiency. Oh and it has an aluminum body too though that may be a year-specific feature.

I’ve never driven one of either, they don’t look bad though. They reminds me of the AMC Pacer (1970s):

Yes, the car that was in "A Goofy Movie" and "Wayne’s World". Aesthetically I like it yet it was poorly made; sub-par A/C and the engine was a last-minute decision once they couldn’t get rotary engines for them and they only got 18 MPG which for their size is not that great; larger cars from a few years later and maybe even its own time period can beat that easily. I like the idea of modifying one though, they do have rack and pinion steering which I’ve never experienced before.

Pre-emission cars may have been stinky yet I’ve been hearing some were a lot better on fuel than you may think e.g. 15 City/20-24 HWY. Not speaking for that 1958 Imperial I saw on Jay Leno’s Garage or a 1958-60 Ford Edsel but maybe a 1950 Oldsmobile. I have no first-hand experience with this though. First-year catalytic converter cars showed a decrease in performance and MPG. Yeah, they’re still inefficient compared to cars today but pre-1974 they were better. I know someone who has a 1963 Plymouth Fury III with the 426 Wedge engine, I’m reading it gets something in the neighborhood of 373/385 H.P. or 413/421 H.P depending on if it has a dual 4-barrel carburetor or not.

Oh and speaking of this I’m reminded that someone swapped a newer engine into a Ford Edsel and routinely gets around 20 MPG instead of 10 – as long as he still owns it, that is; he swapped it maybe 8 years ago by now.

I haven’t ever been offroading. I wonder what it might be like if I ever fix up that 1941 Dodge Truck which I may or may not inherit in wake of Grandpap’s death. The truck needs nearly everything looked at except the frame; it hasn’t been on a road for over 40 years.

@BarryFromMars
I figured as much; the CTS is a little bit too small (and a lot too much of a sports car) to be a real land yacht.

Fun fact about the Pacer: the passenger side door is a few inches longer than the driver side, to encourage rear seat passengers to board from that side. The idea was that, if the car was parked on the side of the road, it would be safer for them to get in on the sidewalk side than the road side. The "safety car" mentality was also why it has so much glass; outward visibility was great (unlike a lot of modern cars ), the thought being that it would reduce your chances of getting into an accident.

@BadgingBadger
I’ve never done any off-roading, but I do like the idea. What is the truck in the second picture? I don’t think I’ve seen one of those before.

Well, I don’t mind driving a Cadillac per se… It’s just for this fairly new model "What would I ever need this amount of power for?" (a question I’m sure could be answered in short order) and "Oh, another scratch" and watch for the people thinking I’m snobby for it but I’d have to deal with it regardless; it comes with new Cadillac territory. An older Cadillac wouldn’t be bad IMHO but maybe I’d take a second generation Oldsmobile Toronado (very similar to the Cadillac, being based on it) and convert it into a Wagon because WAGON MY TAIL ABOUT IT!:!:! (well, I exaggerate in the MR REGULAR VOICE.) Serious Joke aside my Dad had a stock Toronado Sedan in the 1970s and it had front wheel drive, something uncommon of land yachts in its time. Speaking of which, you know that 1974-1976 G.M. cars had an optional airbag system? However, choosing it removed the shoulder seat belt.

I knew the Pacer had a wider passenger side door but not why, thanks for that tidbit of trivia. The amount of glass and visibility is great, yes, and while I’m here (being a wagon and land yacht aficionado) I’ll mention another Wagon, this one with curved windows like the Pacer: 1971-1976 G.M. Full-Size "Clamshell" Wagons. Pictured below is a 1973 Impala:

(hm, what’s the car in the background I wonder?)

The "Clamshell" Wagon had a tailgate advertised as a "Glide-Away" Tailgate. The glass goes into the roof and the tailgate into the floor. Most had a motor for the door but a few were manually operated. No tailgate parties with this as you might with another Wagon and it wasn’t the best for utility according to what I heard; if the door was undone from the track, if dirt got in the track or if someone rear-ended it you might total the whole car. Then again, if you feel like CHALLENGING a big repair it might be enjoyable by the project’s end.

These barges weigh in the realm of 4,700-5,400 pounds depending on which year, model and if it has three rows of seats. The 1974 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser with three seats weighs the most according to what I read. Oh and the MPGs in these? Somewhere in the 7-17 range depending on what model, engine and where it was driven. Someone at Stationwagonforums has a 71 Pontiac with the 455 and he claimed 17 MPG going 55 on the highway.